Adam Craig slips in parking lot, out until June

American cross-country mountain biker Adam Craig won't be able to compete until June, he announced on his blog Monday, after slipping on ice in a parking lot during a run in February.

Craig injured his anterior crucial ligament in his knee on Feb. 3 in a Bend, Ore., parking lot during a run. A week later he went into surgery, where doctors replaced the busted ACL with freeze-dried donor tissue. The dead donor tissue gradually breaks down in the body while it serves as scaffolding for natural body tissue (read more about the process here).

The surgery succeeded, but Craig's leg won't be sufficiently healed until 16 weeks after surgery.

"With all of this progress and a knee that appears, other than a bit of swelling and some incisions, to be healthy, I'm looking at not being able to ride a mountain bike in any remotely risky environment for four months from the date of surgery, February 9th," Craig wrote on his blog.

Craig will be riding a trainer and working with physical therapists to speed his recovery.

"In between doing, at this point, very basic exercises, I'm trying successfully to avoid drinking beer and eating ice cream while watching TV and instead learning new salad recipes and staying hydrated. It's kind of reminding me that I like having things to focus on rather than existing day to day."

Justin Leov opts out of New Zealand National Championships

National Championship jerseys restrict space for advertising, as shown in this UCI rule diagram.

The 2009 New Zealand National Downhill Champion decided not to defend his title last weekend because of a new UCI rule that he says hurts sponsors.

Justin Leov, two-time New Zealand National Downhill Champion, didn't race because if he had won, UCI rules would require him to wear the national championship jersey in every downhill event for the rest of the season. National Championship jerseys restrict space for sponsors.

"For me, the sponsors are the reason I am able to race overseas, and if I don't have them, then I won't be able to do what I want to do," Leov said. [Otago Daily Times]

In previous years, UCI rules required that national champions wear an armband at events to show national champion status. The new UCI rules state that, "National road, track, cyclo-cross, mountain bike, BMX, trials and indoor cycling champions must wear their jersey in all events in the discipline, speciality and category in which they won their title and no other event."

Jersey advertising is limited to a 10-cm rectangular band across the torso, a 9-cm band on the sides and a 5-cm band on the shoulders.

Leov is not the only cyclist protesting the rule change. He told the Otago Daily Times that teammates in Australia and the United Kingdom were not likely to race in their home country's national championships. He also said that other riders at national championships were only half-finishing races as a form of protest.

The restrictions have already prompted more than 1,100 people to sign an online petition and another 2,000 people to join a Facebook group petitioning the new rules.

Plews repeats, Rusch defends at Spa City 6-hour MTB race

Source: USA Cycling

The second event on the 2010 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Ultra-Endurance Calendar, the Spa City 6-Hour Mountain Bike Race, took place last weekend in Hot Springs, Ark.

Evan Plews (Salem, Ore.) repeated his success from the 12-Hours of Santos event a week before and grabbed the elite men's victory in Hot Springs.

On the women's side, Rebecca Rusch (Ketchum, Idaho) took the win, defending the course record she set last year, when she rode 70 miles in 6 hours and 10 minutes.

For complete results of the weekend's race, click here. With two of the five races in the USA Cycling Mountain Bike Ultra-Endurance Calendar complete, the standings are as follows:

Elite Men

1. Evan Plews (Salem, Ore.) 120

2. Scott Henry (Austin, Texas) 40

2. Sebastian Ortiz (Miami, Fla.) 40

3. Rob Lichtenwalner (Nazareth, Pa.) 30

3. Ernest Marenchin (Stow, Ohio) 30

Elite Women

1. Rita Borelli (Tallahassee, Fla.) 80

2. Rebecca Rusch (Ketchum, Idaho) 60

3. Andrea Wilson (Cordova, Tenn.) 40

3. Selene Yeager (Emmaus, Pa.) 40

5. Laureen Coffelt (Memphis, Tenn.) 30

The USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Ultra-Endurance Calendar will take a two-and-a-half month hiatus and then continue with Dirt, Sweat, and Gears on May 15 in Fayetteville, Tenn.